Cruise Day 5: Napoli

Today, we were parked in the Naples harbor, a very short walk into the city itself. Our plan was to visit Herculaneum and the Archaeological Museum in Naples, plus try to get a pizza in between.

May 19

We started off the day with another breakfast at Lumiere's. I had eggs benedict again, and Danny had the fruit bowl with muesli and the french toast. I forgot to mention that at the previous breakfast our server was Thai, so Danny got to surprise him with a Thai greeting. We couldn't remember his name right away when we arrived, so we didn't get to sit in his area again. But, we met him later at the buffet and found out that he's a rotating server, so would have been there anyway. But, now we do know when he'll be there.

First, we had to walk along the harbor to the other end of town to get to the Circumvesuviana train. Several other groups of people were also touring on their own here, but most were going to Pompeii. Once we got to the station and on the train, we turned out to be next to another group of people headed toward Pompeii but thinking about trying to do both. We talked for a bit, and they ended up splitting into two groups. The couple who had been to Pompeii on a previous trip came to Herculaneum with us.

Naples port, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Today, I had the IPod Touch, and was using the Lonely Planet PDFs as our map and guidebook (with the GoodReader app). It's workable, but not great. The screen is so small that there's constant zooming and panning, and changing a page, especially with a map takes a while. When the map spans two pages, it's difficult to go back and forth and keep your place. I also can't make my own marks on the map, which I like to do. Still, it does work, means I don't have to carry a lot of guidebooks around, and if I'm only in a place for one day then it's good enough. You can buy the PDFs by chapter, which is ideal for cruising.

My summary of Herculaneum is that it's a lot more compact than Pompeii, and with the exception of Pompeii's Villa of Mysteries, better preserved (at least what's still in situ). There's an amazing amount of walls that still have the plaster on it, and a wide variety of frescos still remaining. Plus, the site is less crowded, and in many places you can get a lot closer to the artwork than you can in Pompeii. I remember a cherub painting deep inside one of the buildings where it was still possible to see the brush strokes. Another interesting sight was the few buildings that still had intact ceilings. What surprised me was how complex the ceilings were. One ceiling in a small room had two shallow barrel vaults on either side with a diamond recess set into a rectangular recess in the center section, all covered with fresco artwork. The also had crown moulding all along the ceiling edge. In another room, I saw a style of crown moulding which is still in use today. Another impressive sight was intact (but burned) wood - a staircase, some wooden partitions, a cabinet, balcony railings, and many doorway and support timbers. From what I read, the state of preservation in Herculaneum is greater because it was buried by a tidal wave of mud, rather than ash.

Temple ruins, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Fancy ceilings, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

We spent about 4 hours there, and I think we entered every building. A lot of the frescos retaining the most detail were hidden away in places, or high up on a wall, so it was very fun to explore the city. The intactness of it gave a real sense of what the city would be like. It doesn't have a theatre or a coliseum like Pompeii, and it's not an overwhelming large city, so it's not as awe inspiring, but I think that for a short visit, Herculaneum might actually be a better choice. Of course, Pompeii is much better for handling the crowds of a cruise ship.

Wall painting details, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Next, we went back to Naples, and tried to find a pizza with the official seal of approval. We weren't in the right section of town for that, but we did find a place that had good looking slices of Sicilian style pizza for one euro each.

After the pizza, we hit the Archaeological Museum. I can't believe that I skipped this on three previous trips to Naples. It's an amazing museum, with a very high quality of sculpture (mostly marble, but some bronze), much of it collected by a single family. There's also a supposedly similarly nice mosaic collection, but it was closed, because we're cursed that way. Finally, it has the best frescos taken from all the Vesuvius sites. The level of artistry is very high, and by the time we got to that floor, the amount was overwhelming. It's fun to see scenes from "classic" mythology and imagine how these would have been on the walls of their homes, and how it was part of their daily life and religion.

Roman wall painting, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Sadly, I'd forgotten my second camera battery in the charger on the ship, so I ran out of juice just as we were getting into the murals. Danny took plenty of pictures, and it this point it was really getting hard to decide what was the best. It was also getting close to closing time, so we had to hurry through the last floor before the museum closed (and before we needed to head back to the ship).

Carved gemstone, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

The museum has several historically important sculptures - a very old bronze head, a sculpture that is the only known work of a particular school, a pair of revolutionaries which have been copied many times, but the highlight of the museum is the Farnese Bull. This sculpture was so big that when I turned the corner, it was down the hallway far enough that I couldn't see the details, but I could see that it was many times taller than the crowd of people standing around it, and just as wide, shaped vaguely like a gigantic cube. It's actually a copy of a Greek original, but like the original, was carved from a single huge piece of marble. It's sufficiently impressive that it was written about by the ancients. It depicts a woman (Dirce) being tied to a bull by two men to be dragged through the fields, as punishment for a crime. The presence of the group alone is amazing, but the activity shown as the men wrestle the head of the bull raises it to a level beyond amazing. It might replace the Lacoon as my all-time favorite sculpture.

Farnese Bull, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

The runners, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Giant diorama of Pompeii, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

When we tried to exit the museum, the gift shop was closed, so we had to sneak through the edge of the construction area to get back to the entrance where we left our bags. Then we headed back to the ship, stopping to buy a bottle of limoncello on the way.

By the ship with Vesuvius in the background, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Dinner tonight was at Lumiere's. Since it was the French menu, we brought some yummy homemade goat cheeses from Annette's sister in France. We both had escargot, and a cheese appetizer, but I can't remember right now what I had for the main course. I think this was the dinner where Danny had three appetizers and two main courses because everything looked so good.

Belle and the Beast at dinner, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

After dinner, we headed to an event called "Adult Flubber", held in one of the normally forbidden kids' areas. Here, a mad scientist did a couple of liquid nitrogen demos, and then we made a rubber-like substance out of blue Elmer's glue, water, food coloring, and a white powder which might have been detergent. It was fun and silly, but the flubber didn't work very well - Danny's didn't want to roll into a ball, it just stayed flat, and mine had a huge crack what went halfway through it. It bounced, but that was about it. Between the mad scientist and the either intoxicated or just euphoric people in the group, it did keep us laughing.

From Cruise 2010 - On the boat

I don't think I've talked about the high staff to guest ratio. I've heard we've got about 2500 guests on board, and more than 1000 staff. The ship is always spotless, which must be quite a task with so many people in a confined space, and the large number of children. Everything seems to work very smoothly and effortlessly. This is a terrific illusion maintained for the guests by a highly disciplined staff.

Ferhat and Jason, our dinner servers, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

I've also forgotten to mention the towel animals. Each day, Leonardo, the person who makes up our room, creates a towel animal on our bed. They're different each day, and very impressive. We've had an elephant, a bed-spanning shark, a dog on a flying carpet, and most recently a trilobite.

Dog on a flying carpet, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

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Cruise Day 4: Tunis, Tunisia

We're in port for a short day only in Tunis. It's our second stop, so we're not tired yet, but it's our first time to Tunisia and we're really excited to do a lot more than we've got time for. First I'll say what we want to do here, then I'll go into what we managed to get done. Of course, what we want is unrealistic, but we've tried to come up with a plan that has a chance of success.
May 18, 2010

We're in port for a short day only in Tunis. It's our second stop, so we're not tired yet, but it's our first time to Tunisia and we're really excited to do a lot more than we've got time for. First I'll say what we want to do here, then I'll go into what we managed to get done. Of course, what we want is unrealistic, but we've tried to come up with a plan that has a chance of success.

Tunis, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Tunis has got a lot to offer in the way of Roman ruins, which we're excited about. First of all, it's the site of ancient Carthage, the city founded in mythology by Alyssa, also known as Dido in Virgil's Aeneid. Let's see if I can remember this right: At its founding, Dido went to the Phoenician king and asked for land to found her own city. Her wish was granted in a snide way: she was given a bull hide and told to cover (or surround) as much land as she wanted by nightfall. The king expected her to win a small plot, not much bigger than the bull hide, but instead she craftily cut the hide into thin strips and covered an enormous region of the north African coast and founded Carthage on the spot. Dido's story ends in tragedy when Aeneas, after fleeing Troy with his father on his back, came to Carthage and won the heart of its queen. After staying in Carthage a few months, he left, driven by his destiny to found the Roman people (on the shores of Alba Longa, in Italy). Dido was distraught and burned herself on a pyre of all the belongings that Aeneas left behind. Later she treats Aeneas coldly in the underworld when he visits. So the ancient ruins of Carthage are something with some historical appeal, though all that's left is mostly rubble and a decent amphitheater.

In the opposite direction from Carthage is the well-preserved Roman village of Dougga. It's one of the best preserved Roman villages and probably worth a visit, but it's 90 minutes away, if you have reliable transportation. About 20 minutes farther is another Roman site, Bulla Regia, where there are some underground Roman houses. About six of them are very well preserved, and just the sort of thing we'd love to explore.

On the one hand, there are these ancient Roman ruins that would be fun to see. On the other hand, the Bardo museum in Tunis has all the best treasures recovered from the ruins, including one of the best collections of Roman mosaics. The Lonely Planet recommends taking a half day for the museum, which means that we have to choose between Carthage, Dougga (and possibly Bulla Regia), or the Bardo museum. When we were initially making our plans, we weren't yet aware of Bulla Regia, so the choice was just between those three places. There was a guided tour offered by the Disney cruise to Carthage and the Bardo, or to Dougga, but nothing to Dougga and the Bardo, which we would have most preferred. Even then, the tour only allots one hour for the museum, which is way too short for us, and later we talked to some people who did that tour and they said they didn't spend enough time in Carthage either. So realistically we could only choose one place. We chose to go to the Bardo, and if there was time, maybe we could hit Carthage on the way back.

Here's what actually happened: We left the ship and headed towards where we hoped the train station would be to take us into the town adjacent to Tunis where the Bardo museum is. We lacked a map, and even the Lonely Planet was no help here, never expecting that its readers would arrive by cruise ship, so we walked until we were just the slightest bit lost and then the taxi drivers attacked. They insisted that there was no train station here (though I thought I could see a platform about a quarter kilometer away, and it turns out I was right, but I couldn't tell for sure and we were already suffering from the problem of not having any local currency yet), they insisted that there was no bank or ATM nearby (though the merchant at the duty free shops had pointed me in this direction when I asked for a bank machine), they insisted that all the taxis operated on a fixed price [which at least the ones right by the ship did], and so on, until there was nothing we felt we could do but take a taxi to the museum and figure things out from there.

The taxi stopped in town so I could withdraw some dinars and then stopped again to pass us off to his brother who drives his own taxi, and finally after a lot of traffic and sour feelings we arrived at the Bardo. It was closed, not to open for another half hour, which is earlier than the Lonely Planet reports once the lack of daylight saving time is taken into account, which we'd failed to do when making our plan. We sat in the shade and tried to consult the map on the Lonely Planet PDF on Ryan's iPod until the museum opened.

Half of the museum was closed for renovation and expansion of the museum. Actually, only a small part was closed for renovation, but the closed rooms shut off access to the rest of the museum, so we only got to see about half the rooms. A sign informed us that the mosaics from those areas had been moved so we could still see them, but the best works weren't present, so I suppose those were the ones being repaired. It's tragic. At least what we did see was amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed the collection of recovered shipwreck goods, and some of the mosaics were really cool. There was a planetarium in a similar arrangement to the one in Italica near Sevilla, Spain, but this one had a very different artistic style. We'll post a picture later when we get better internet speeds. The planetarium has the seven heavenly gods in the center (six arranged around a central one) with emblems of the zodiac around. In Italica, Venus sat central and the gods had a very Roman look. Here in Tunis, the gods looked more realistic (less stylized) and Saturn sits central. The other gods are Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Selene, and Helios, representing the 5 planets and the sun and the moon. Earth, of course, is not a planet yet.

Planetarium, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Other spectacular mosaics include a large, banquet hall-spanning mosaic of Neptune, surrounded by tritons and sea creatures: "The Triumph of Neptune." This mosaic was under repair but we could still view it. One of the workers nicely walked out to the middle to take a better photo of the centerpiece Neptune. Another floor mosaic depicted Bacchus with all his cherubs harvesting grapes for the wine. We liked a pastoral scene with workers in a field, some chasing a gaggle of grouse into a trap. The wall mosaic that one of the ubiquitous tour guides claimed was the highlight of the museum (and it is culturally significant) has Virgil composing some opening lines of his epic poem on a scroll: Musa, mihi causas memora (O Muse! the causes and the crimes relate …) [And the portrait on the mosaic is supposedly the only one done of Virgil from life --Ryan]

Neptune centerpiece, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Daily life mosaic, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

As I said, the Lonely Planet recommends allowing a half day (4 hours?) for the whole museum. At our slow pace, we finished half the museum in 2 hours, and then we didn't know what to do. We'd planned to spend the extra time either going to Carthage, or to the medina and the souks, or if we really had a lot of time left, maybe going out to Dougga and Bulla Regia. But even though we'd spent only two hours at the museum, we were delayed getting there and then delayed again waiting for the museum to open, and by now it was 12:00 ship time, and we had to be back by 4 or get left behind. With only four hours to go, we didn't think we had time to go to Dougga and back (that's three hours travel and only 1 hour to see the ruins, and then we'd regret not going to Bulla Regia, too. Anyway, there wasn't enough time for Dougga. We thought we might be able to get to Carthage, so we walked to the metro and took that back to the train station, except that the metro took a long time, too. It's above ground, so not actually a subway, just a light rail that runs through town and through traffic, and it's as crowded as they come, and a pickpocket tried to pinch something from Ryan's pocket except he was guarding against that already so nothing happened there. By the time we got to the transfer station (transferring to another metro line before getting to the train station) we decided to try to exchange our money back into euros before going to Carthage where we worried there might be no banks or services. But then we realized the time and now we had only three hours to get to Carthage (about a 40 minute train ride) and back to the port (another 20 minutes, plus walking) so that left a little less than two hours to see Carthage, not counting delays in waiting for the train, getting our money changed back, etc. We didn't even know the train schedule, only that the Lonely Planet says it runs "frequently." So we scrapped the plan to see Carthage. Of course, now we were feeling terrible about our decisions. The Bardo was half closed and opened late, leaving us too little time to tack Carthage onto our itinerary, and by the time we ever get back to Tunis, if we ever get back to Tunis, I'm sure the underground Roman villas in Bulla Regia will be roped off and inaccessible. We were despondent and sure that we should have taken a private car or a taxi for the day to Dougga and Bulla Regia, and done just that. We imagine that that would have been a splendid day with no difficulties and everything to our satisfaction. Who knows whether that would have been the case?

Attempting to salvage the situation, we went looking for lunch. We decided to trust the Lonely Planet's eating recommendations even though our PDF is from 2007, but Tunis doesn’t seem to change that quickly and it's got very few tourists not with guided groups. One place sounded interesting, so we went there and didn't order the menu du jour (Tunis is bilingual with Arabic and French), so we became anxious when our order took a long time to arrive (45 minutes), but then what we had was quite tasty and we were resigned to our choices which were already made and the day could not be done over, so we determined that we would look only forward again and not wallow in regret. My lunch was something unfamiliar to me, called Ojja, and I had it with fruits de mar (pardon my French spelling). What arrived was an amazing array of seafood varieties, with baby octopus and baby squid, several types of clams and shrimps and other assorted sea creatures, all in a spicy tomato sauce with cooked hot peppers interspersed, and buried within this delicacy were two poached eggs, with liquid yolks that ran out into the tomato sauce when punctured and the entire creation was delicious. Ryan had a tempting fish couscous and the couscous was very good, small and fine, and moist and flavorful. [Possibly the best couscous I've ever had --Ryan]

Tunisian lunch, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Our spirits were lifted for the moment, until we went to change our remaining dinars back into euros. At the bank where I stopped, we were told that only Tunisian citizens are allowed to change Tunisian dinars into euros at the banks in town. For us, the cashier suggested that we could make the exchange at the airport. We told him we had arrived by boat, and he assured us we could exchange the money at the port, too, but I didn't believe him since I hadn't seen anything like that when we arrived and no one had mentioned any money changers when I was looking for banks upon arrival. Still, we had no choice but to wait until we got back to the port. We browsed a souvenir shop but found nothing worth buying, so we walked to the train station and bought our train tickets back. The taxi to the Bardo cost us 25 euros; the metro ticket from the Bardo to the train cost us 900 dinars, or about 0.45 euros for both of us. The train from Tunis to the port cost us another 900 dinars. Total transportation cost out was less than 1 euro for both. Sigh.

When we got to the port, there was no controlled departure, just a couple of touristy shops claiming to be duty free. We could have walked in from the boat through these shops without going through passport control. There was no organization, only chaos. We learned there's no money exchange here, but a man thought he might be able to sell our dinars to a local merchant and asked around. We had 40,000 dinars left (equivalent to about 20 euros), but he couldn't find any buyers. The merchants kept telling us we should keep the dinars as souvenirs. They're not worth anything else to us. The man helping us (and that's a loose term here) offered us 10 euros for our 40 kilodinars, and we countered with 30 - our three "10"s (3 x 10 kilodinars), and keeping the stack of "1" coins to ourselves. He agreed grudgingly. So that was a bad exchange rate, but we were done with it and got more than nothing for our dinars. We had saved some nice looking coins, but we still had a stack of 10 grubby coins, valued at about 5 euros.

Right by the boat we'd seen camel rides for the tourists as we left in the morning, so when we came upon them again in the afternoon we thought about buying a camel ride for fun with our stack of worn coins. The man was reluctant, but we drove a hard bargain and gave him the stack for a short camel ride. It's silly and fun, but now we've ridden a camel this trip (we did a much better ride a long time ago in Egypt).

Camel ride, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

At last, we're back aboard. We met up with Adrian and Margaret for a game of Settlers of Catan, and Colin, the thirteen year old from the dinner table next to us, joined us to learn the game, but then left early for one of the teen activities. We had to cut the game short anyhow for the evening show, which we hoped would be as good as the show a couple nights ago. This one was "Once Upon a Song" and didn't have any fancy costumes and no story, either. It was just medleys of Disney songs and I'd probably rather skipped it and done something productive.

Singing show, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

Because we were just in Tunisia, we thought it would be fun to wear some Moroccan costumes we got in Marrakech, and we looked smart in them. We took our photo with Chip and Dale in their Arabian wear, and also with Mickey and with Minnie in their costumes, too. We wore the garb to dinner, and walking around the ship we got a lot of appreciative comments and some people took photos with us. The Disney crew seemed to get an even bigger kick out of our getups than the cruisers.

Dressed up, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

We weren't really interested in any of the after dinner entertainment, so we retired early to work on the blog and more planning, but I fell asleep.

I'm writing this on the train from Civitavecchia to Roma Termini where we're hoping for some espresso and some sweets and then taking another train to Ostia Antica. Read more!

Cruise Day 3: La Valletta, Malta

Today's port of call was La Valletta, Malta. Strangely, we didn't need to take our passports, just our Key to the World card and a photo id. We didn't have anything in Malta we were super excited to do; we really just wanted to see what it was like. So, we planned for a couple of the top tourist spots that are a short walk into town.

May 17

The cruise ship docks fairly early in the morning, and disembarking starts around 8:30am, so we got up at 7. Today, we decided to have breakfast at Lumiere's, which serves a pretty nice assortment of food. I had eggs benedict, Danny tried to get something that approximated granola with fruit and yogurt, but they didn't understand what he wanted and he ended up with some flavored yogurt with granola sprinkles on top.

Today's port of call was La Valletta, Malta. Strangely, we didn't need to take our passports, just our Key to the World card and a photo id. We didn't have anything in Malta we were super excited to do, we really just wanted to see what it was like. So, we planned for a couple of the top tourist spots that are a short walk into town. The town is fortified, and on a hill, so it's a bit of a hike from the water to get into the town, but not too bad. The town itself looks and feels European. Since the town is on a hill, you can frequently see the sea at the end of the streets, in any of 3 directions. The stonework of the town, especially on the approach, is very monochromatic. Everything is the one light brown color that can be quarried locally. Another interesting thing about Malta is that although they do have their own language, English was spoken everywhere, and all the signs were in English. This has to do with the relations that the knights of St. John had with the British crown in order to get their island back.

Fortifications of Valletta, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Valletta port, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

We saw St. John's co-cathedral first, which looks quite plain on the outside, but is heavily decorated on the inside. One of the more unusual things about this church is the floor - it's made up of hundreds of multi-colored marble slabs, each bearing a different pictorial memorial to a knight or noble. When you can see a lot of them, it almost looks like a tapestry.

St. John's, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

From Cruise 2010 - Ports

The next stop was the Armory and royal apartments. We wandered through the royal apartments, but there wasn't a lot to see there. Only a few of the rooms were open, so we saw a dining room and a pre-dinner lounge room, and a meeting hall. What we really came for was the Armory. This was divided into two sections, one for weapons and one for armor. The weapons room had swords, crossbows, pikes, cannon, and an array of flintlock pistols and rifles. The armor room had displays on the different types of helmets, and a large number of suits of armor from the Renaissance. The centerpiece was about 6 suits of very high quality armor, some of which had belonged to Grand Masters from the 1500s.

Part of the Armory, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

We'd hoped that we might find a beach and go swimming, but after looking at the maps the night before, I'd determined that the closest one was two towns to the north on a bus, so we decided not to do that. Instead we did a little bit of shopping, picking up a few bottles of exotic liqueur - a carob and orange, a prickly pear, and a fig and date, all made in Malta. We sampled the prickly pear in the shop, and it was unusual and good. We've since opened the carob and orange and it was interesting, but not that great. The orange flavor is too subtle and overall it reminds me of a much smoother version of Jagermeister. In addition to the liqueur, I bought a filigree maltese cross to use for costuming.

We also wanted to start the live blogging, so we needed to find a free wireless spot (the internet on the ship is $0.75/minute, and very, very slow) to upload our posts. The map that Disney provided had the free wireless spot in the wrong place, so it took a bit of walking around to find it, but we were able to connect at a restaurant right on the dock.

When we got back on the ship, we had a couple hours before dinner. The weather was sunny and slightly warm, so we decided to go for a swim in the ship's pool. We tried both the adult and the mixed pool, and the adult pool was the warmest pool I've ever been in. Someone told me later that it had gotten up to 90 degrees (there's apparently a TV channel with all the pool temperatures on it). As we were swimming, the time came to depart, and the captain announced that he would momentarily be blowing the ship's whistle from the forward funnel. I'd head that the whistle was fun, but didn't know what it was exactly, and wondered why a warning was necessary. It turns out the warning is because the whistle is really loud, especially when you're in the pool right in front of the forward funnel. It's not a regular whoo-whoo, or a whooo-gggaaa, but the Disney musical signature, "when you wish upon a star" in the very deep and resonating tones appropriate to a large ship. It was so loud and so Disney that we couldn't help but laugh.

Dinner tonight was at the Animator's Palette restaurant. This is well known for being a show worth seeing. We'd gotten a preview of the restaurant from our emergency drill, so I wasn't surprised by it. The restaurant is decorated entirely in black and white when you arrive, and the waiters are dressed in that as well. The walls are decorated with pictures of characters in various Disney movies, and as the dinner goes on, they light up in full color as the music from their movie plays in the background, or various hero/villain/lover medleys play. Since we knew somewhat what was going to happen, we dressed in our brightest, most colorful outfits - Danny in purple jeans, purple shirt, and purple tie, and me in sea blue jeans, and a bright green shirt with a blue zebra on it. Toward the dessert time, our servers said goodbye and enjoy the show. They disappeared while the scenes became colored, and then reappeared moments later in multicolored vests and led by Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey. A dance ensued, and the room became fully colored. It was a fun show, especially with Magic Mickey, but I think my expectations had been built too high.

Our most colorful outfits, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

One of the main courses, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

After dinner, we peeked in on another dead dance, and then went to the comic magician. We only caught the last half of the show, but he was entertaining enough to get us laughing pretty quickly. After the show, we went back to our room, did some Tunis planning, and went to bed.

Elephant, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

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Cruise Day 2: At Sea

Fancy brunch, wine tasting, stateroom crawl, board games, a Disney show and formal dinner, ending with the comedy club and a poolside movie! Today is the first full day at sea.
Mediterranean Cruise Day 2: First day at Sea (May 16, 2010)

Today was a long, busy day. We started out by waking up at 7:15 and getting to the gym by 8, even though we'd been up late last night (I was ironing our dress shirts until 12:30 am). After a moderate workout at the gym, we tried out the steam rooms, which were nice (I like the aromatic steam room), but a little too hot while the dry room was a little cool. There's a nifty full-around shower but there was a problem with the cold water and the lowest setting was scalding, so we skipped that because we didn't have time to wait for it to get better. Instead, we headed to Palo's where we had a brunch reservation.

Palo's is the fancy, exclusive (as in "by reservation only") restaurant that costs a $15 surcharge on top of the cruise ticket. It's supposedly well worth it and we went to see for ourselves. We dressed up fancy for our fancy brunch (I wore some smart white trousers with a bright blue shirt, a white tie and a white hat. Ryan wore dark blue trousers with a magenta shirt, but no tie. When we were seated, the server took away Ryan's white napkin and brought him a black one so he wouldn't get white lint on his dark pants.

Dressed up for Palo's, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

We started with Chambord mimosas (Chambord and champagne), and then our server introduced us to the buffets. There were six or so different buffet sections: Sea food, danishes, hot breakfasts, hot lunches, cheese and salads. From the sea food area we grabbed black caviar, rock crab claws, king crab legs, scallops and sea food bloody mary shots. I had a slice of German stolen with blackberry jam, cream and mixed berries, and also a piece of sweet Danish bread. Ryan had some berries and cream, too. We got eggs (benedict for Ryan, with added spinach, and Florentine for me) and I had a short stack of pancakes from the breakfast section. The pancake syrup had orange zest in it and was very good, but the pancakes themselves weren't so awesome because they were pale and of a manner I think is too fluffy. We skipped the chicken parmesan and veal lunch options and the intriguing gorgonzola and grape pizza as well. (The Italian sausage pizza looked pretty good, but one has to make choices and some things inevitably get left out, so no pizza for us.) I tossed together an arugula salad with grilled vegetables while Ryan got his berries and cream, and then we hit the dessert table. We picked out four desserts to share and try and decided unanimously that the tiramisu was the best of the bunch. The two chocolate petit fours weren't that spectacular, and Ryan enjoyed his sherry trifle.

Part of the seafood section of the Palo buffet, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

Palo dessert buffet, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

After brunch it was time to meet the DISBoard folks for a wine tasting. We sampled two whites (a Riesling and a Sauvignon Blanc), three reds (a Bordeaux blend, a Merlot and a Shiraz), and finally a champagne. We liked the Riesling, and I also liked the Sauv. Blanc, but neither of us liked the Australian Shiraz for some reason, because I ordinarily like those. Ryan didn't like the Merlot either, nor, I suppose, the meritage (the Bordeaux blend). We had small chocolates to pair with the wines just to see the effect, and I guess that Disney cruisers like chocolate? We also got souvenir pins, which I immediately ruined the Ebay value of by opening it. Oh well. (What am I going to do with a Disney wine tasting souvenir pin? Ryan says I should take it to a pin trading session. If you don't know about pin trading, believe it's a religion for some folks.)

When the wine tasting was over, we met up with even more DISBoard people for a stateroom crawl, meaning we visit the elite staterooms of those DISBoard members with elite staterooms who don't mind showing them off. I checked out only the first two rooms because the rank 4 one (1 is the best; we're in 12 or something) was almost identical to ours but with a veranda. The rank 3 room was pretty impressive, though, and fun to visit. However, I wanted to swim, so I left Ryan (who had been elected the leader of our tour group) and headed back to change into my swim suit. I got distracted, however, when I realized that we were organizing the board game session in a couple hours and I hadn't finished fixing the minor problems with our Luna Llena pieces yet. Luna Llena is a werewolf RPG that probably is fun to play with 4 or more players, but was pretty dull when Ryan and I gave it a two-player test run.

By the time I finished fixing the pieces, Ryan was back from the stateroom crawl and so we both went to the pool for a short while until it was time to play board games. We met in a lounge and two other people showed up: Adrian and Margaret. We played Modern Art, and Ryan won by about 5 kiloeuros). Margaret came in second.

We had a short amount of time before the evening show, which we squandered faking a nap and then realized the time and rushed off to see the big nightly production. We forgot the camera, so there are no pictures forthcoming.

The show tonight was called "Twice Charmed," and in it Cinderella's Wicked Stepmother turns out to have her own fairy godfather (who is also wicked) who sends the stepmother and her daughters back in time to ruin Cinderella's engagement to the prince. They break her matching glass slipper, and the one that the footman's got for girls to try on, and so the Prince is going to be forced to choose either Esmeralda or Drusilla. Instead, he flees the kingdom in search of the girl he met at the ball. He searches for a long time, then gives up. Cinderella also gives up and worries that she's lost so much already and doesn't want to risk losing anymore. This is a terrible flaw in their characters, but it's necessary to drive the moral, which is that true love never dies (though it does give up, apparently).

The main theater seats 900, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

The story is thin, sure, but the production is best appreciated for its costumes and dance numbers. The singing is also excellent, if the songs are a little stock musical in character. At any rate, we thoroughly enjoyed the whole show. There were wicked spells cast by the fairy godfather (a demoniac magician who doesn't care if the stepmother gets hers in the end because he's just, well, wicked. He seems modeled on the villain from the new Disney movie, "The Princess and the Frog"), dance numbers, tap dancing, amazing voices (I can easily imagine Cornelia taking this as a dream job), pretty dresses and handsome men in Renaissance suits, pyrotechnics, special effects, and even a dream sequence with a look-alike of Cinderella.

Main Lobby, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

We had a brief amount of time to change into our formalwear for dinner at Lumiere's. It's fun to have occasion to wear nice clothes so often, especially when I can keep them nice and I don't have to worry about street dirt or bad weather. I wore a grey suit with a pale purple shirt and a blue and silver striped tie. Ryan had on a brown pinstripe suit with a bold blue and purple striped shirt and a white tie. We tried to get a picture of our snappy looks, but I don't think we have a good one.

For supper we had a cheese soufflé, soup for Ryan (potato and sausage, but was missing the sausage) and salad for me (mixed greens, apple, gorgonzola, and candied walnuts), and then the main course. Ryan had a rack of New Zealand lamb (it was good, though the lamb actually in New Zealand was better, he says) and I had some portobello mushroom ravioli in a sauce of butternut squash. Dessert wasn't that great: the lemon cheesecake needed more lemon flavor and the black cherry compote was actually only three cherries in a spoonful of sauce.

After dinner, we split up to check out various nighttime entertainment options. Because I'd run into the comedian from last night's show in the launderette while ironing our dress clothes for today, I'd promised him I'd be at his show. There was no need to attend just for the sake of filling the audience, however, as the room filled up and entry was closed a short while after I arrived. The comedy was funny at times, though some jokes fell flat for me. Meanwhile, Ryan went up to see what the poolside movie watching was like. The film was High School Musical, which held no interest for me, but Ryan hadn't seen it yet so he didn't know better yet. Still, he had a good time. He had the pool to himself when he arrived (I guess everyone else has the same idea about HSM) so he swam laps while watching the movie. Then later some kids arrived and joined him in the hot tub, which is where I found them chatting when I arrived after the comedy routine ended. We talked a while (they've been planning this cruise for two years and can't believe they're on it at last, whereas we decided to get aboard only three weeks ago), and then the movie was over and they pool was closing at midnight. We headed back to our room and spent some time writing down our journal notes, etc., and then finally got some sleep. Malta comes tomorrow!

Our first towel animal, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

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Skipping forward in time...

We ended up leaving Argentina about 4 weeks early. We spent 1 of those weeks in Rio, and another in Morocco, but that left us with 2 more weeks. At this point in the trip, we were looking for something a little bit different, maybe more relaxing and more social. Something that might require less planning too.

Prelude

We ended up leaving Argentina about 4 weeks early. We spent 1 of those weeks in Rio, and another in Morocco, but that left us with 2 more weeks. At this point in the trip, we were looking for something a little bit different, maybe more relaxing and more social. Something that might require less planning too. We investigated want-to-see destinations like Istanbul and the Greek Island, and learning/volunteer experiences like helping at a Roman archaeology dig or counting sea turtles. We also looked into cruises. Neither of us has been on a cruise before, but we've both been a little bit curious about the experience. This turned out to be a winner, and we settled on something that might seem unlikely - an 11 day cruise on the Disney Magic, leaving from and returning to Barcelona. We got a great last minute price, but did have to do some shopping in order to have outfits for the formal, semi-formal, and pirate dinner nights. Fortunately, there are some cheap clothing stores in Barcelona, and the main thrift store chain was having and "everything is 2 euro" sale.

We almost had a problem when it came to buying the tickets. I'd seen a really good price on Expedia, but I'd also read in my investigations that if we bought through certain travel agents, we could get a hundred or two worth of ship credit. So we certainly wanted to do that. But, by the time the travel agent got back to us, the good price for the sail date we'd wanted was gone (it had nearly tripled). However, she said that it looked like the last of the discount cabins was only under hold, not purchased, and the hold would be released in 24 hours. She could put a hold on our second choice date, and then if the hold on our first choice was released, book that for us. It did end up getting released, and we got our first choice, the main advantage being that we got an extra day on the ship (a rest day at sea right in the middle) for no additional cost.

Now that we had everything settled, I tried to dig up more information about the ship and the ports, and found the DISboards, a bulletin board style forum for Disney fans. These boards included a meetup thread for every Disney cruise, so I connected with people there who had been planning their cruise for months and even years, and they filled me in on all the details and answered a bunch of questions. They're a very friendly and enthusiastic group of people, and it was fun to start out already "knowing" some people on the ship. We met up with several of them the night before the cruise to see the Magic Fountain (better than I expected) and had a great Mexican dinner with Kia, John, Nikia, and Lelani.

An Aside

We're going to try to liveblog this whenever we have internet access. A network connection on the boat is very expensive and very slow, so we might only post when we have a port day that we have some time at. There will probably be no pictures til we get back.

Embarkation Day - May 15

Even with all this prep, I didn't know fully what to expect for Embarkation Day, but we did have some worries already. First, we'd been assigned the early seating because the late one was full. Early here means 5:30pm, and we'd been eating dinner around 10:00pm. The early seating could also interfere with some of our port trips, since sometimes we otherwise wouldn't have to be back until 8:00pm. Our travel agent had waitlisted us for the late seating, and later on told us that we'd gotten it, but I could find anything on the Disney website to confirm this. We also really wanted to get a brunch or dinner reservation at Palo, the upscale restaurant on the boat, but all the pre-booked slots were full. I'd heard we could get reservations on the ship, but didn't know how many were available or if it would work with our schedule.

The embarkation terminal was just one of several large halls on the dock. There were 3 other cruise boats lined up there, 2 from Royal Caribbean and 1 from something else. I was happy because although the Disney boat certainly wasn't the biggest, it was the prettiest to my eye. It's built to look like a classic ocean liner with big smokestacks and gold painted scrollwork on the bow. The smokestacks are just decorative though - one holds the teen club and the other a giant LED screen where they show movies that you can watch from the swimming pool and hot tubs.

The Disney Magic, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

At the terminal, you turn in your forms, show your passport, and get your bags scanned. A lot like the airport, but less formal. We'd hoped to buy a bottle of sipping liqueur in the dutyfree, but it only had overpriced wine, and we'd already stocked up on that at the grocery store.

In the waiting room, there was some entertainment for the kids: a silver statue guy of a sailing captain, a flamenco dancer with her guitarist, and Mickey and Minnie in Spanish dress taking photos with the kids. We said hi to the DISboarders we knew and waited for our number to be called.

Spanish Mickey, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

As we walked onto the ship, I couldn't help but feel excited, almost as excited as when we'd first started our adventure. Here I was doing another thing that I never really expected to do, and certainly not on this trip. My first surprise was just a couple minutes later when I found out that we didn't just board the ship, we were announced. Every group entering gets formally welcomed over the atrium sound system, which echoes throughout the hallways of the ship. And then a line of cast members applauds and says hello. It's a fun touch, and made it feel very Disney right away.

Our first order of business was to verify our dinner seating, sign up for some tastings (martini, rum, and mixology), and try to get a Palo reservation for brunch and/or dinner. We got on the ship in the early crowd, so this was all very easy and we got everything we wanted, including brunch and dinner at Palo.

We had about an hour and a half before we could check into our rooms, since the earlier cruisers had just left this morning. The buffet was open, but we weren't hungry yet, so we wandered around the ship. It's quite nice - the main decor is art deco, with lots of little Disney touches everywhere (old sketches and obscure Disney film posters on the walls, a Mickey Mouse hand on the elevator indicator, a bronze statue of Steamship Mickey in the atrium, a dining room called Lumiere's with glass encased roses in the chandeliers, etc). The ship is also clearly kid-focused. There are 4 fun areas for kids only - the teen hangout in the stack, looking kind of like a TV set of a college dorm lounge; a science lab themed area with microscopes, other science toys, and a set of video game stations; a fake bridge with a ship simulator program; and an active play area with a jungle gym, hula hoops, bean bags, etc. They looked like fun places to play, but we could only visit during the open house. There are 3 swimming pools - a kids only one with a waterslide, an all ages with the giant LED screen, and an adults only one. There are three main dining halls, one Caribbean themed, one French themed (Lumiere's), and one Disney themed (Animator's Palette), plus the fancy Palo restaurant which requires special reservations. In addition, there's a buffet, a hamburger and pizza place, salad and panini stand, and 24 hour soda fountain. All of this is free, as much as you can take. Pretty much only the liquor and coffee costs extra. There are also two huge theaters, one for movies and one for live shows (which seats 900!) - think big Disney shows with musical numbers and indoor fireworks and confetti cannons. Finally, there's a spa and an exercise room, and about 4 nightclubs, plus several lounges, some all ages, some adult only.

Kids-only pool, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

All ages pool with the aerial view, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

Adult pool, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

When we got to our room, I was surprised how big it was. I'd heard that Disney has some of the biggest rooms, but it was better than I expected. We'd gotten the cheapest possible room (category 12) and been upgraded to something only a hair larger (category 10), but it was easily twice as big as some of the hotels we'd stayed in (specifically a certain hotel in Christchurch). We've got a king sized bed, living area with a couch, coffee table, and desk, a steamer trunk wardrobe, a double closet, a chest of drawers, a TV, a fridge, and two half bathrooms. I think a bunk bed folds down out of the ceiling too. It's all nicely decorated and very comfortable. I think it's been the only place where we've fully unpacked.

Our stateroom, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

Now, the next order of business was to get some food. We hit the buffet, and while it wasn't awesome, it was OK. I knew that Disney Cruise Lines isn't known to be ultra gourmet, and that the buffet is one of their least appealing food offerings. They did have some tasty cocktail shrimp though. In line, we met Dr. Dolberg and ate lunch with him. He travels about on cruise ships giving lectures on the history of places that are being visited, and we hoped to listen to his talk on Malta tomorrow.

After lunch, we took a tour of the spa - it has a soothing rainforest room with a herbal steam room, regular steam room, dry sauna, 360 degree shower and several heated stone chairs. The spa also has some couples massage rooms and some very elaborate "villas" complete with jacuzzi on the exterior veranda.

At 4pm, we had an emergency drill. We had to get our lifevests on and proceed to our gathering areas. Ours happened to be in the Animator's Palette dining hall. We sat around and waited to see if our room would be one of the random ones called for checks, they explained some emergency procedures, and we headed back to the room to do some unpacking.

Next up was the farewell party. In true Disney fashion, a group of very enthusiastic and bubbly performers got up on stage on the center deck of the boat and got everyone dancing. The cover the main pool area and use it as a dance floor and gathering area. We only saw the last couple songs, and missed the confetti cannons, but we saw the remnants.

Bon voyage party, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

Typically the evenings are dinner and a show, or if you have the late seating, a show then dinner. Tonight's show was "Let the Magic Begin", a sampler of all the shows to come. There was some singing and dancing, a comedic magician, and a comedian. The performers were all pretty good, but I was looking forward to tomorrow's show, which I'd heard was much better.

Dinners on the Magic are done via what they call "rotational dining". You cycle through the 3 main restaurants with the same people at your table and the same server and assistant server. We started in Parrot Cay, the Caribbean style restaurant. The theming for this restaurant is pretty light - some wall decorations and the ceiling in places. Later in the week, the menu is supposed to reflect the restaurant, but tonight was a special theme, so all the restaurants had the same menu. I had the fried calamari appetizer, seafood chowder, and the lobster and shrimp risotto, and the dessert sampler (small portions of three of the night's dessert). Danny had the bastela (a strange form of the Moroccan pastela), the same risotto, and an add-on of roast vegetables on arugula. The food was pretty good, but not stellar. I'd say the desserts were the most disappointing. Despite the server's warning that the steak was very tough tonight, several people at the table ordered it, and regretted it. The server had them choose a second dish as a backup and most of them took advantage of that.

At 9pm, in the middle of dinner, the ship cast off and departed from Barcelona. There was a gentle rocking all night long, sometimes a bit more than I expected, and I know that we looked like drunkards as we tried to walk down the long straight corridors. I was wondering if that would make me sick, but it didn't. After dinner, we checked out the dance club to find it empty except for a few kids moonwalking on the stage. So, we finished unpacking and went to bed early.

Barcelona, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

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